The FCC Wireless Bureau said Molex, which makes consumer signal boosters embedded in vehicles, can meet labeling requirements if consumers are provided information when the vehicle is delivered. The company argued that the manufacturer-installed device is “embedded inside the vehicle by the time it reaches the consumer,” so the “consumer has no access to the Device or its packaging,” the bureau said Thursday. “Because consumers would lack access to the Device or its packaging,” the alternative approach “better meets the Commission’s public interest goals,” the bureau said: Consumers must be informed of their need to register the device with their carrier, receive carrier consent and other requirements.

BLU Products agreed to pay a $130,000 civil penalty, admit it violated specific absorption rate (SAR) limit rules and implement a compliance plan, the FCC Enforcement Bureau said in a Thursday order. BLU's Grand Max mobile phone exceeded SAR limits and “failed to comply with the labeling, user manual, and permissive change requirements of the equipment authorization rules,” the bureau said. BLU indicated it had addressed the problem through a May 2018 update after the bureau made inquiries, the order said. The company told the FCC it stopped selling the model in August 2018. BLU didn’t comment.

NTIA proposes potential changes to the spectrum relocation fund (SRF) as an appendix to a report to Congress the FCC was required to file under the Mobile Now Act. The commission didn’t provide the report or comment Thursday. “The most significant challenge to using the SRF to support sharing with unlicensed operations is likely to be funding, in terms of both ensuring a sufficient balance in the SRF and the budgetary implications of providing such funding,” NTIA reported: “Any increase in demand for funding from the SRF is potentially problematic, given the limited resources.” Federal agencies are under increasing pressure to share spectrum with industry and the public. Citizens broadband radio service relies on using Navy and other federal spectrum, and the FCC indicated agencies should have their sharing costs reimbursed (see 2002180061). One option would be to use “a portion of the anticipated or actual revenue from future (not yet scored) auctions,” NTIA said. Funds could come from current SRF balances, the agency said: “This option offers the potential for funding to be made available without the delay that is likely in connection with identifying a future, not-yet-scored auction. Significant obstacles to this approach are the need to identify scoring offsets for the new costs and the risks associated with directing SRF funds to this purpose that potentially could be needed for other uses.” Usage fees or fees charged to communications equipment makers or distributors is another option but “would require substantial further study to determine whether the collection of such fees would be practical” and would be “logistically complex and might not generate sufficient income.” Location costs would be supported by leasing fees for federal spectrum, the agency said, though “significant resources would be required by NTIA and other federal agencies to negotiate and manage these spectrum leases.”

Companies building communications towers within the Oklahoma range of the endangered American burying beetle are required to complete a special environmental assessment, consistent with a January programmatic biological U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opinion, the FCC Wireless Bureau said Wednesday. The range covers a 45-county area in the eastern part of the state.

Nokia representatives told FCC officials C-band auction winners should be allowed to deploy 5G services in contiguous blocks of spectrum. That general "desirability" is "well-understood" and support came in this proceeding, said Nokia in a filing for docket 18-122. It cited "technical benefit" The company spoke with Wireless Bureau, Office of Engineering and Technology and Office of Economic Affairs staffers.

Automated frequency coordination and “other interference mitigation safeguards are vital” to protecting utilities if the FCC allows sharing in 6 GHz with unlicensed devices, Edison Electric Institute officials told Nick Degani, an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai. “Members require strenuous protections against harmful interference to microwave communications systems in the band,” said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-295. Zebra and NFL officials spoke with Pai about the use of Zebra technology for player and ball tracking, and potential impact of proposed rules. Broadcom representatives told an Office of Engineering and Technology staffer it seeks rules that don’t “inadvertently restrict common home-networking configurations by applying client-device power restrictions to devices that comply with the indoor-only restrictions we have proposed for low-power indoor access points.”

The FCC likely won’t have to delay the citizens broadband radio service auction past a July 23 starting date and the C-band auction should start in December (see 2003250052), Commissioner Mike O’Rielly told reporters Tuesday. He conceded COVID-19 and a jittery market could raise additional questions. “There may be some difficulty,” he said. “Cash is not going to be as cheap as it once was. … The purpose is not to raise money. The purpose is to efficiently allocate the licenses. I will certainly keep an open mind if companies are having difficulty accessing capital markets and we’ll have to see if that’s a case.” A spokesperson said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel is also concerned about auctions in light of the virus.

ARRL representatives spoke with FCC Wireless Bureau staff and Chief Technology Officer Monisha Ghosh on an ongoing fight over limitations on the symbol, or baud, rate (see 1907160016). “The symbol rate should be deleted immediately and [ARRL] strongly supports replacing it with a 2.8 kHz bandwidth limit rather than not imposing any limit,” the amateur radio group said in a filing posted Monday in docket 16-239.

The FCC Wireless Bureau granted emergency special temporary authority Monday for Ashiwi College & Career Readiness Center to use three unassigned 2.5 GHz channels to provide broadband to the Pueblo of Zuni in New Mexico during the coronavirus crisis. Tribal entities remain eligible to apply for 2.5 GHz licenses during the rural tribal window, which closes Aug. 3, the FCC said. The bureau understands the college “is ready to deploy immediately.”

The Enterprise Wireless Alliance “urgently” asked the FCC to waive until Aug. 31 a requirement that site-based and mobile-only wireless systems meet buildout deadlines between March 15 and that date. “Granting temporary waiver relief would be consistent with other public interest actions the Commission has taken in response to the extraordinary disruption being caused by the coronavirus pandemic and would relieve the FCC of having to act on a large number of individual waiver requests that otherwise could be filed,” the alliance said in a filing posted Friday.